foreign objects in food

I have an interesting one. I used to go to a local all-night dinner all the time. One of my favorite places in town really. I never really had any incidents there, but on one particular evening I upended the sugar into my coffee only to have 3 ants fall out of the dispenser. One was hanging on to the outside of the lid and there was another one still in the dispenser. Luckily I am not squeemish and just got another cup. I still wonder how the ants managed to get in there.

I'd rather get a mouthful of band-aid, bristle, or hair than e. coli, salmonella, or listeria. Restaurants aren't perfect. Most of them are really cooking food back in those kitchens, and sometimes things fall in.

During my days in the biz, we had a bad run of getting spring mix that had lots of tiny snails in it. We'd wash the hell out of the stuff, but on at least three occassions a server was summoned to a table to witness one of these little guys trying to scoot across the salad plate and out of the vinaigrette.

I have an interesting one. I used to go to a local all-night dinner all the time. One of my favorite places in town really. I never really had any incidents there, but on one particular evening I upended the sugar into my coffee only to have 3 ants fall out of the dispenser. One was hanging on to the outside of the lid and there was another one still in the dispenser. Luckily I am not squeemish and just got another cup. I still wonder how the ants managed to get in there.

They find a way. One time in the student council office at Speed School we had a case of moon pies sitting next to the fridge - the sales had slowed down so they were there a little longer than normal. When we finally opened it up to put more out we discovered that the entire case had been colonized by ants. about 70% of the moon pies in the box had been penetrated by ants, and each one looked like an ant farm with tunnels running through out. It was both disgusting and amazing at the same time.

Before that I'd never seen a single ant in that office... and I don't think I've eaten a moon pie since.

[Robin Garr]

During my days in the biz, we had a bad run of getting spring mix that had lots of tiny snails in it. We'd wash the hell out of the stuff, but on at least three occassions a server was summoned to a table to witness one of these little guys trying to scoot across the salad plate and out of the vinaigrette.

Mary got one of those at Christian Constant in Paris once. She didn't mind, just took it out front and put it down in a little green park across the street. The hostess was horrified, of course.

I was telling my husband about this thread last night, and he added the following:

Many years ago in a nicer Louisville restaurant , he ordered a salad of "fresh spring greens". He found out just how fresh those greens were, when mid-bite, he looked down and saw a 3-inch fat green caterpillar crawling across his plate.

(I'm not typically squeemish, but that one would have freaked me out...)

He found out just how fresh those greens were, when mid-bite, he looked down and saw a 3-inch fat green caterpillar crawling across his plate.

Aw Deb, you know the old saying, "Better to see the whole 3-inch fat green caterpillar, than half of it . . ."

I've seen the caterpillar/snail in the lettuce many times over the years but ran into a first the other night. A lady found a rather large pearl in one of her oysters. Oddly enough she wasn't terribly upset.